Thursday, June 11, 2015

The Untold Story of Women Who Code

Computer programming is typically seen as being an activity that is done by young men of a certain type. Most TV shows (e.g., Silicon Valley) and movies conform to this stereotype. However, it's far from the truth; Lady Ada Lovelace is often referred to as the "first computer programmer" and Grace Hopper famously wrote the first compiler and coined the term "computer bug." A YouTube video, shared with my by my colleague Mark Wilson, featuring Megan Smith, the former Google executive recently appointed by President Obama as the Chief Technology Officer of the United States, further debunks this myth.